Ninten-Don't... How I watched my children turn into monsters

As my eight-year-old son Gabriel hit his five-year-old sister Honey on the head, ten-year-old Phoebe started yelling and the youngest, three-year- old Lucien, joined in the fun, a red mist descended over my vision.

It was eight in the morning. No one had eaten breakfast. The curtains had not been opened. The beds had not been made. The dog had not been walked. Our habitual regime of a ten-minute morning music practice had been abandoned.

The entire mood was one of anger, confrontation, pain and frustration.

Welcome to a family of Nintendo-users. Or should I say user, since we had only one of these infernal devices.

Wow...I'm sorry but this lady is stupid. To expect a group of 4 children to play nice with a single player handheld system is silly. To not have any sort of control of said children is just bad parenting. They took it from your drawer, hid it from you, took it from your bag and presumably did the same thing, and you expect them to behave nicely with it? Sweet jesus, no wonder the DS is selling so well. Parents like this buy it thinking they can be "t3h awes0mes momz". It's possible to have a sharing system, but when you have children who have already demonstrated a delinquent demeanor towards it, then don't bother. I hope the Cancer Research place she gave it to donated it to a hospital or area for children who suffer from it and can be grateful. Smartest thing she could've possibly done out of everything else.

Just another case of bad parenting. Why would you think a small army of children would be able to politely share a Nintendo DS. I don't know anything about his women or her family and I could tell you they are not going to share one DS very well. Usually I read stories like these and the parent is ignorant about video games, but this lady is just plain ignorant. Good job knowing your children.

What kinda news is this??? Back in the day my twin cousins got into fistfights when there was only one controller on the N64...And i mean brutal fistfights that looked like it was going to become a deathmatch...and its a disgrace when some little rich goodie goodie family has a few pushes and it becomes news...sad...

just because your kids are hitting eachother doesn't mean it is games fault, and if the kids learn to use it as an excuse as they grow up they will never learn what is right. Tell them it is wrong ang ground them but DON'T BLAME VIDEO GAMES FOR YOUR ERROR AS A PARENT!!!

Just another story to try and blame video games. Theres no way 4 young kids will be able to act fine and share one DS. Was she reporting when they argued over some blocks or a toy car. No so give it a break and be a parent and control your children.

For anyone not familiar with UK papers, the Daily Mail = super-fail and you shouldn't take anything they say seriously. They cater to paranoid Middle-Englanders and as such to call them a bit behind the times is an understatement.

Sounds like typical kids to me, If you have siblings at various points during your childhood brothers and sisters fight over the most pointless things. Why don`t parents get this, its just what happens.

Pretty pathetic parenting. My kids (6 and 8) both have a DS which they play within the boundaries of when we allow them to. If they ever snuck it when they weren't supposed to they would not see it again for a number of days.

If kids have to share because you can't get one for each, then you draw out a fair distribution chart that they either follow or lose their next turn.

Don't tell me games have zero benefit to the child. My son is desperately trying to learn to read because he loves Pokemon and he can't play his sisters Pokemon game until he is a better reader, so he spends every night working on his reading. You also learn problem solving skills, pattern recognition and hand/eye coordination.

If you want to peacefully coexist with a child and a game, just like anything else you set boundaries and apply discipline.

This is just typical kid stuff really. I mean, my brother used to turn off my N64 when I was playing it and I got pissed at him. Needless to say, a 7 vs 11 year old did not work well. Then I managed to get my Game Boy Color taken away from me for like, 4 months. After that, I never did anything to get it taken away again.

it sounds like you need to be more strict...it amazes me that Women are either scared of their child or afraid to punish them...knock their head upside the wall and I bet they'll stop all that nonsense...sounds like they need some Male authority in the house...Women just can't keep order it seems

I have three children and they have a DS, so I feel perfectly qualified to comment on this.

My kids share it without argument, their gaming sessions are timed, and any dissension is met with removal of the machine.

I am the parent. I control their use of the DS.

My kids know I'll follow through with punishments and so they are happy to follow the rules.

I'm sorry, but all of the poor behaviour you describe sounds like the result of 3rd rate parenting on your part, nothing at all to do with a games machine. Playing it at midnight in bed? Stealing it from you? I suggest you have a problem far deeper than you'd like to believe.

It may soothe you to think that the electronics are to blame for the lack of respect and your lack of control, but we both know the real problem.

It's you.

I think that you should forget the advice of the expert on brain degeneration, and seek the advice of the 'Super Nanny'.

A little advice for free, take responsibility for your kids. They need you to.

someday when I have kids, if they stole something after I took it away Id probally break it right infront of them. Im kinda bitter cause when I was little my dad put my favorite zbot in the garbage disposal when I was a bad child.

They are kids.. what do you expect? Of course stuff like this will be happening, probably more than once during their lifetime, or have you never been in a fight? It's your own, and their low age's fault that they result to violence.

The Daily Mail appear to be deleting comments that do not agree with their point of view.I posted there a couple of hours ago and now its gone.The total lack of comments indicate how many people agree with them/

i couldnt share a ps1 later ps2 with my brother, eventho many games were multi player but she wants 4 kids to share 1 ds.. tbh its not nintendo's fault nor the kids but mothers. make a schedule or buy cheap ps2 or few old gameboys if you have trouble with $ so that everyone has something to do.

it's stupid to think all four of your children (shoulda used birth control) could share such a crucial piece of technology

kids get insanely irritable without something to do, if i ever have children i'mma gonna sit em in a room with some future sony system or microsoft system and let them play all the violent games to get there anger out. wii motes are dangerous, i have been smacked in the face with a wiimote NOT FUN!!!!!

Because kids don't fight with any other toys they have. Kids fight this lady should grow up and realize what it's like to raise children. If my brothers and I weren't fighting over a video game it was a toy or basketball.

but as a lifetime gamer I'd have to disagree with her method of solving the problem. in my personal opinion, there should've been more control over the DS asserted by the mother. With my parents, my chores had to be done and my grades had to be right to play my Sega Genesis. On top of that, during summer vacation, I was only allowed to play at night, which meant I had to get outside and play with my friends to be able to play video games later. Although people that don't understand gaming work my nerves, I do think it's sad for people to lose their talents and their lives to gaming!